Monday, March 27, 2006

Undeserved hostility

In Iraq, in Kosovo, in Afghanistan, anywhere in the world, you can win a war, because you are a mighty and powerful country and you know who and where the enemy is.

You know how to attack it and how to defend yourself from it.

You have come out victorious most of the time, and most of the time the people of the world have thanked you for what you have done.

But I fear that you, gentle giant, do not know how to defend yourself from the enemies that attack you from within.

You cannot believe that your own children are turning against you. You don't believe that your own people lay the blame on you for not giving them "more"!

I can see the frustration in your eyes, I can feel the disappointment in your big heart. I also know (but this is strictly between you and me) that there are times when you ask yourself: "Why bother?"

You sit at the table with your children to celebrate a victory, to give them good news about your accomplishments, to get acknowledgement for the big effort you put in, and they look at you as if you were a bloodthirsty hypocrite.

One asks you: "Are you willing to sacrifice American lives to keep Iraqis from killing one another?" (ABC's Jessica Yellin)

And: "Are you concerned that the Iraq experience is going to embolden authoritarian regimes in the Middle East and make it tougher to get democracy there?" (USA Today's David Jackson)

"Is there a point at which having the American forces in Iraq becomes more a part of the problem than a part of the solution?" (Bob Deans of Cox News)

"A growing number of Americans are questioning the trustworthiness of you and this White House. Does that concern you?" (The Washington Post's Jim VandeHei)

"Your decision to invade Iraq has caused the deaths of thousands of Americans and Iraqis, wounds of Americans and Iraqis for a lifetime. Every reason given, publicly at least, has turned out not to be true." (Hearst columnist Helen Thomas)

"Let me ask you about this charge of incompetence, because we hear that not just about Iraq, but we hear it more — and being raised sometimes by members of your own party on a variety of issues — the bumbling after Katrina, the Harriet Miers nomination, the failure to see the political implications of the Dubai Ports deal." (CBS Bob Schieffer)

You look at them astonished. Like a father with his children, you want to open your big arms and collectively hug them, forgive them, because you love them more than anybody else. It doesn't even cross your mind that they might be betraying your trust in them. You just keep loving them.

And you love them even when 500.000 of them come together to protest against you and your immigration reforms.

You didn't close one eye when they sneaked in, you closed both, because you love them. You gave them all they could ask and never got in their countries.

You welcomed them on your soil, you gave them dignity, pride, bread, jobs, hope, opportunities, and today they march against you waving Mexican flags.